Welcome to the Hog Blog, a blog chronicling minor-league baseball in the Lehigh Valley. Tom Housenick, The Morning Call's IronPigs beat writer, has been at The Morning Call since 2008. In a previous lifetime, he was at Lackawanna County Stadium in Moosic talking with future Phillies Jimmy Rollins, Pat Burrell, Shane Victorino and Ryan Howard, among many others.
He’ll now be spending his summers in search of who the Phillies are hoping to be the next Chase Utley and Cole Hamels plus any outfielder who catch and hit. What he really hopes to find are the next Mariano Rivera, Todd Helton and Jim Thome --- great human beings who happened to be great at this sport.
He spent the last five years covering Colonial League football, college basketball and high school track & field.

The IronPigs managed just three hits in the first game of Thursday's doubleheader at Rochester, using one of them with two walks and a hit-batter to tie the game in the top of the seventh inning.

But that "rally" went for naught when Rene Tosoni, who had just failed twice to get down a sacrifice bunt, lined a game-winning two-run homer in the bottom of the inning off Vance Worley for a 3-1 victory.

Worley (1-1) scattered four hits, including a solo homer by Dustin Martin, struck out five and walked two.

Eric Hacker limited the IronPigs (2-3) to two baserunners, a two-out double by Brandon Moss in the fourth and a two-out single by Matt Miller, and struck out five over six innings but gave way to Phil Dumatrait to start the seventh inning.

Dumatrait promptly gave up a one-out single to Delwyn Young and walked Ronnie Belliard and Jeff Larish before Rochester manager Tom Nieto saw enough and brought in Jim Hoey. Hoey struck out Miller, then blew a first-pitch fastball past Erik Kratz before plunking the IronPigs catcher on the forearm to force in pinch-runner Cory Sullivan with Lehigh Valley's only run.

However, Hoey kept the game tied by striking out Josh Barfield.

Worley opened the seventh by walking Martin on four pitches. Tosoni first fouled off a bunt, then bunted threw a pitch to falli into a 1-2 hole. But the 24-year-old Canadian, in his first year at Triple-A, lined his second homer to right.

Ryan Feierabend makes his first start for the IronPigs in the second game against Kyle Gibson, the Twins top prospect according to Baseball America.